As part of our National Parks Road Trip in the Summer of 2013, we spent 2 nights in here, but I do like heat and warm water for my shower.
From their website: “Tucked right in the heart of Yosemite, below the towering majesty of Half Dome and Glacier Point, Curry Village cabins offer guests a unique and magnificent place to stay. Scattered throughout the village, guests will find 46 comfortable Yosemite cabins with private baths, plus 18 standard motel rooms, and 319 canvas tent cabins. In addition, there are 14 cabins with centrally located bath houses.”
We stayed in one of the “319 canvas tent cabins” and paid about $150 per night. I would have happily forked over the additional dollars for one of the cabins or motel rooms, but there were none to be had when we booked. My expectations were pretty low, and I think all in all, it was a mixed bag.
I like to start everything from a positive, strengths-based perspective (10 points if you can guess what my graduate degree is in), so let’s start with the good.
- Location : Curry Village itself is located right in the heart of Yosemite Valley. You can start your day with a beautiful view and fresh, clean air
- The Price : This is the least expensive option among the in-park lodging
- The sense of adventure : This is huge and the reason why I would even consider doing it again (although probably not)
- The programs : So this is for all of Curry Village (just like the location and view), but I am listing it here to make the “pros” list longer and because I don’t want to seem like a hater. We attended a nighttime ranger program, where we got to hear about the history of Curry Village (fascinating) and we also heard a talk about bears (which probably saved our lives…well, not really, but it led to a great story…see more below).
- The blankets were wool
- The kids slept through everything
- The bear lockers (the big black boxes in the photo) – I guess they worked
- The NOISE – Ugh! This was really the worst part. Unless you are the soundest sleeper in the world (or a kid – see under “Pros”) then you may get a half hour of sleep in increments of 3 minutes. As you can see from the photo, the tents are REALLY close together. And they are canvas. So you can literally hear everything that is going on in the tents around you (which are on both sides, and behind you as well). I felt like there was a strange French speaking guy in bed with me because I think his head was on his pillow about 10 inches from my head on my pillow separated only by a couple pieces of canvas. There were babies crying in the night, people laughing really loud, coughing, snoring, you name it. Oh, and the bear.
- The cold showers – there are bath “houses” where you have to wait in line to take a cold shower after a sleepless night. Even my daughter was like “take me to the Hyatt!”
OK, so the cons list isn’t as long as I thought it would be. I think that the noise was enough to just put me over the edge. Note to self: next time bring earplugs and sleeping pills, oh wait, there won’t be a next time because I will book a year in advance so we can get a cabin – because we really did like Curry Village itself.
Remember how I told you we liked the Ranger program about the bears? There are bears all over the place in Yosemite, and the Park Rangers take safety very seriously. We are on the bears’ turf, so we need to respect them and do everything we can to keep everyone safe (hence, the bear-proof lockers). So, one of the things that we learned is that the Rangers will scream “GO AWAY BEAR!” and try to make loud noises whenever they see a bear in the camp area. They are trying to scare the bears away as best they can, and there are even some kinds of tracking devices to tell when a bear has made his (or her) way into the camp.
At some point during the middle of the night, during one of our 3 minute sleep increments, we hear the shout “GO AWAY BEAR!” right in front of our tent cabin door. We (the adults) sit bolt upright, hearts in our throats, waiting for a bear to burst through the canvas tent. Time passed, no bears came in, and we may have fallen back to sleep (or heard babies crying, etc). Our kids somehow sleep through all of this.
As morning comes, we open our door to find this:
True story.
As part of our 3 week-long National Parks road trip in the Summer of 2013, we drove from San Francisco to Yosemite National Park, where we spent 2 nights in Curry Village in one of their tents. I don’t really have words to describe the beauty of Yosemite. These kinds of trips make me feel more connected to the world, at the same time feeling small and insignificant compared to the vastness of these spaces, and also important enough that I live in a time when places such as these are accessible to me. It’s often a spiritual experience for me, this feeling of being connected. Yosemite was one of a handful of places where I have felt this way.
I mean:
We spent 2 days in the park, doing a few beautiful hikes and exploring the gorgeousness. The Park Rangers were super helpful with suggesting hikes that would be family-friendly. My kids have a decent amount of stamina (not saying they don’t complain though), but it’s best to know their limits and plan accordingly. The also participated in the Junior Ranger program and earned their badges!
We drove to Mariposa Grove to hike among the ginormous trees. Totally worth it, but heed this advice: if the sign says that the parking lot is full & you need to go to a lower lot to catch a shuttle, take that with a grain of salt. We took the shuttle (very crowded & had to wait a while), and when we got to Mariposa Grove, there were tons of empty parking spots…grrrr. Other than that, it was just amazing to see trees so tall and old.
We explored the valley and did some great hiking. The view of El Capitan from the El Capitan meadow are breathtaking. There is endless space for the kids to run around and places for them to climb.
This is one of those not-to-be-missed viewpoints. From the National Park website “From the Glacier Point parking and tour unloading area, a short, paved, wheelchair-accessible trail takes you to an exhilarating (some might say unnerving) point 3,214 feet above Curry Village, on the floor of Yosemite Valley.”
After our second night spent at Curry Village, we drove through the other side of Yosemite via the Tioga Pass road, on our way to Mammoth Lakes, CA. Along the way we made lots of stops, including these:
We left the park via the Tioga Pass, which is the highest highway in California and the Eastern entrance to Yosemite. You have to check road conditions, as weather can close the road, even in the summertime.
Have you been to Yosemite? Did you love it as much as we did?